Kotobukido: Home of the Surprisingly Spicy Taiyaki!
It’s a taiyaki that isn’t sweet! Welcome to Kotobukido, a place in Shiba Park known for their super spicy taiyaki.
Taiyaki is a soul food of Japan. It has maintained tremendous popularity among the Japanese for more than 100 years, although its filling has been changing and evolving since then. Considering that its roots can be traced into Imagawataki, which is another popular a Japanese dessert filled with sweet azuki bean paste, its history dates back more than 300 years.
There is a famous taiyaki theme song in Japan. This song, the name of which is “Oyoge Taiyaki-kun” (Swim, Taiyaki-Kun), was sung by Masato Simon, a popular Japanese singer, in 1975; it is about the desolate life of taiyaki and the courage of him who tries to escape form such a miserable daily life, and selling more than 4.5 million copies, this record was recognized as the Biggest Selling Album of All Time in Japan by Guinness World Records. It is now no doubt that there isn’t a Japanese person that doesn’t know this melancholy taiyaki song and taiyaki itself is loved by all the Japanese.
Kotobukido is the long-established taiyaki store at Shibaura selling the old style taiyaki in the street stalls. Though in Tokyo there are the three major taiyaki restaurants, Naniwaya Souhonten (Azabujuban), Yanagiya (Ningyocho), Wakaba (Yotsuya), this store is no less famous than these popular and old taiyaki restaurants. Established in 1909, Kotobukido has been inherited as a first rate Japanese confectioner from generation to generation.
Because Kotobukido had originally been a Japanese confectioner, their advertising menu is taiyaki with their home-made perfectly sweet bean paste (anko). The outside of their taiyaki, cooked with the icchoyaki style (the style with which they cooked it independently), is very springy and its inner is thoroughly filled with anko. When you take a bite, their home-made anko comes from the hot and springy texture of taiyaki.
However, there is another unofficial menu item in this taiyaki store. You can order curry taste taiyaki with extremely spicy bhut Jolokia sauce instead of their home made anko.
When Pikarin, Kurumi Nakata, and Ai Matsumoto gingerly eat it, they were surprised at the taiyaki that they had never seen before. They found the strange sensation that is produced when it is put in the mouth. The texture is as sweet as the ordinary taiyaki, but there is spicy curry wrapped in the dough. It is the secret of its deliciousness.
Because the store is closed before sunset, Kotobukido is highly recommended, when you want to quickly become filled with such a spicy and sweet desert.
Information
kotobukidoAddress : 2-30-11, Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Nearest Station : Shiba-kōen
TEL : 03-3453-1616
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